The Master Control Program Has Chosen You To Serve Your System On The Game Grid!! There's A New TRON Movie In Motion!!

Director Joseph Kosinski is in negotiations to helm TRON, described as "the next chapter" of the 1982 film.
Kosinski made a splash last month when he was signed to direct the long-gestating remake/re-adaptation of LOGAN'S RUN. You can see some of his awesome, hyper-stylized commercial work HERE! Click the "WORK" tab. I love his stuff.
The new TRON project will scripted by LOST writers Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis and, interestingly, will be produced by original film co-scribe & director Stephen Lisberger.

When making the original, in order to convince the studio to take a chance on a first-time director, Lisberger shot a test reel, financed by the studio, involving the deadly Frisbee battle. In a case of historical synchronicity, sources said one of the things Kosinski will be doing is working on a sequence involving the movie's Light Cycles to work out his vision for the movie.

Several weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of TRON...shown in 70mm...it was the print recently stuck by Disney to show at the El Capitan if I'm not mistaken.
It's a glorious print and the film is still a helluva lot of fun. If you ever get a chance to check out such a screening, be sure to - you'll get your geek on in a big way.
Gotta love a line like: "Those of you who continue to profess a belief in the Users will receive the standard substandard training, which will result in your eventual elimination!"
Standard substandard...awesome.
Customarily, I wholly disagree with the notion of goofing with "classics". In this case, re-approaching TRON makes an enormous amount of sense - especially with Lisberger's involvement. Firstly, it may not be a "remake". And, a film like 300 could clearly be a template for how a movie as (literally and conceptually) "virtual" as TRON might be made. We've all seen the tremendous leaps forward in CGI technology since 1982...and the concept by nature, well, intrinsically supports an upgrade - v 2.0, and all of that.
There is a TRON 2.0 game by the way - no word on if this film will use the game as a template, although I doubt it will.
Another TRON movie has been in on-again/off-again development for quite some time; you can see glimpses of rather spectacular designs for it on this DVD of the film. If anyone has the capacity to grab these and send 'em along, I'd love to post them in this article.
At one point, there was a TRON sequel being mulled that featured folks searching for Jeff Bridges' Flynn character inside of the computer...and Flynn was written to be something like Brando in APOCALYPSE NOW. Again, it's unclear as to whether this notion will be incorporated into the new project. I would imagine they'll more or less start from scratch, though.

Love the thought of a "Heart of Darkness"/"Apocalyspe Now" search for the Flynn, lurking in unchanged system ROM since the eighties. However, more intriguing would be a users return to the familiar TRON landscape (accidentally summoned by a userless avatar), only to be told that this was merely an IO buffer for the main system - and then stepping into a WOW or EVE online game world where everyone is rezzed up to Final Fantasy standards and has a little green diamond floating above their heads that control your thoughts and actions. The MCP can be replaced with warring user clans who don't know what damage they are doing to the system. The user battles and ultimately sacrifices himself to get a program out into our world to let us know and save the day. Just my two cents. Reef.

Wheres the remake love for Last Starfighter? Of course the beauty of that was the simplicity of the CGI ships, and any remake would look like any space battle done now because of all the CGI work. And besides it was already kind of redone by South Park with the Kenny and the PSP episode.

Okay, I understand geek/nerd nostalgia as well as the next man, and I participate frequently. I realize that it is very easy to make Space:1999 look bad, for example.
But can we just establish that TRON IS CRAP?
Sure, the idea pre-dates and foreshadows The Matrix. Sure, the concept is correspondingly "ahead of its time," with actors playing programs (sans the brilliant double-meaning used in The Matrix, where software "agents" -- which is a 1970s concept at the latest -- appear as actual "agents" with suits and sunglasses). Sure, Syd Mead designed those cars. Sure, the tinted black-and-white footage is innovative and way ahead of Nuprin commercials etc. Sure, Disney exhibited the 0.001% flexibility regarding their petrified cinematic formulae that allowed this to get made.
But it's a TERRIBLE MOVIE! It's no fun; it's badly made; David Warner sucks; Bruce Boxleitner (or however it's spelled) sucks; the story is muddy and confusing; the story is boring, etc. Whatever it is, it's certainly NOT a well-directed film.
I'm just sick of all the TRON nostalgia. It's a mediocrity; a failed experiment that flopped at the box office. It's of historical interest, of course, but that's it.

Seriously, am I the only person who thought 300 sucked balls? And not just because of the massive gay overtones, but that it just plain sucked? If they base a new TRON movie on 300, why would anyone want to see that?

is that while the original might have been fun, it was a pretty naive approach to the concept of what a computer is. This might have worked in the eighties, but I don't think you can pull it off nowadays. Which means that you either (a) have to find a meaningful way to update the concept (i.e. use IT buzzwords in a sensible context) or (b) have to make it cheesy and self-aware. Dunno which one of these is better, tho.

I can hear him now raving how he;s the biggest TRON geek ever and how he needs to be in this ..
PLEASE GOD NO!!!Firs Indy and im almost sure hes gonna screw Y:The Last Man also,somebody please make him go away!

remake this, remake that, hey harry maybe if you stop hyping these fucking things up so bad and start giving more space to new shit, regardless of how small-scale the project is, you can be part of the solution instead of part of the grave, shitty problem. do you love movies or love the reputation of being hollywood's slavering bitch who whips his legions of readers into a moneymaking frenzy years ahead? they are using your fat ass, friend.....

A new Tron movie stands a better chance to make money now, than when the original was made. Back then, 99% of the population didn't own a computer, and the terminology went over their heads. It's because Tron was so far ahead of it's time that it later became a classic. In this day, moviegoers could grasp a new Tron without a problem... so yeah, do it!

Wow dude. That guy looks like a cross between Super Mario and some weird looking bearded woman because that suit makes it painfully obvious that this man? has no penis. It looks like he's got a camel toe actually.
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But I did double over in laughter. This is getting a bulletin on myspace.
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Thanks!

if there are any sci-fi flicks that are prime for remaking, they would be Tron and Logan's Run. Both are pretty cheesy, with badly dated effects and wooden acting ( all but Mr. Bridges ). I still say the miniature work from Logans look like it was done in someone's parents basement. Right next to Lionel train set. The question is should they be remade. If every badly executed genre flick from the past 30 years be remade, we'll be nostrils deep in remakes for years to come.

The 2nd Last Starfighter and an old man with a glove on his face!
It is a great movie- Tron is amazing though- here's hoping it'll be good.
Also- yeah- no SHIA LABEOUF. Mind you he must be happy he has a "no hat" thing in his contract- seemed for a while there old sidekick Shia couldn't appear onscreen without one.

This news was totally unexpected but really appreciated! I really liked the first, not so much for the story itself but rather for the visuals, so I'm really curious to see with what they will come up with nowadays.

and a great continuation of the original. A film remake/sequel really seems unnecessary. The Last Starfighter, though... I'd punch a few guts to be first in line to see that. End of line...er, Starfighter.

and it was a major event. Sold-out screening, packed house and everyone loved it. (I kept the special ticket, too!) It held up very well: the humor, the computer graphics, the story. (some of it was dated of course, but even that stuff was greeted warmly by the audience, not derisively at all) And the print looked great! It was a fun night at the movies, for sure. I hope they do this right. And give us a new Tron stand-up arcade game, already... (heh!)

I swear, if they even think of touching The Last Starfighter with a sequel or hacked-up remake, there's going to be trouble. The Last Starfighter is pure perfection with the best theme EVER. I will never stop fighting to stop them from ruining Starfighter. Did Chris Columbus say he wanted to stay home? What if the Wright Brothers thought that only birds should fly? And did Galoka think that the Ulus were too ugly to save?

TRON is a bad, bad movie, largely for the reasons you said. But then let's also add the crushingly bad reveal of the MCP which is so poorly animated, so unfrightening... This movie even has possibly the only poor Jeff Bridges performance I've ever seen. Bad. Bad.

Are you all really complaining about the derth of remakes in today's cinema? People have been remaking movies for as long as there have been movies. "The 10 Commandments" was an excellent example brought up earlier. Or what about "Frankenstein"? "Wizard of Oz"? "The Big Sleep"? "The 39 Steps"? "Ben Hur"? "King Kong"? How many more could I list?<p>As a lover of "The Last Starfighter" I have mixed freelings about making a sequel to that one. I'd love to return to that universe, but would it be as fun as the 1st time around?

It's like the blue print for his facial ticks and mannerisms for the next decade! People can hate Tron if they want, fine. But there's enough of that "raped my childhood" crap on this site without us turning on each other. Some people love it, others don't. In fact, I think I PREFER that not everybody likes Tron.

He'd be good telling all the programs that there is no such thing as a 'User'.
Kdoc, i agree, 300 did indeed suck balls. Especially the scene where the Persians fired arrows from what looked like 3 kilometers away. Then broke into a sprinting charge at about 2 km.
Just saw a preview for Beowulf. He gives a real Leonadis like 'I . . AM . . BEOWULF' like shout.

Well, i brought the Deluxe-Version of Tron, when the Game(TRON 2.0) was released.
And i've only seen Clips of unused Scenes for the first Movie.
As it goes for the CGI-Elements, the Game delivered pretty much the same as the first Movie did, tough the Faces didn't look so real than in the Movie.
As it goes for Rendering, i think it'll be much less pain for the Movie-Makers due to the much improved Computers we have nowadays.(pretty much of every standard Gaming-PC could handle the CGI of the first movie without any big problems by now)

"let's also add the crushingly bad reveal of the MCP which is so poorly animated, so unfrightening"
with the technology they had in those days, what do you pretend? C'mon people, let's use some imagination to fill the lack of CGI!

should not overlook the contribution of 'ol Robert Preston. His exuburence added emormously to the fun of that movie. Thats TROUBLE, and that starts with T and that rhymes with V and that stands for VIDEO GAMES!!

A la Polar Express and Beowulf? At least for the digital-world sequences. The worst part about the the human-actor "programs" were the cloth "toga" accents and those cheesy blue light effects. Motion capture would be perfect for those movie elements.

The story in The Last Starfighter and Robert Preston's performance were what made it great. The FX were horribly bad, even by the standards of the day. The "teen" actors were rejects from Friday The 13th. The trailer park trash neighbors were completely useless with the exception of the old black guy (It's a sparkling day!) If they could get a decent cast, real FX, and a good story, I'd be glad to see a new "The Last Starfighter", especially a more serious, PG-13 version.

would have to center around a different kid since the actor who played Alex passed away shortly after the film. Wait. Or was it the guy who played Centari? That sounds right. So getting the original Alex and the girl from Night of the Comet would be doable. I dont think theyre too busy at the moment.

This could be the beginning of a new era: the era of DECENT REMAKES!<P>
I can't wait for the remade LOGAN'S RUN. Ditto TRON, ditto (please God!) a prequel / sequel / remake of LAST STARFIGHTER, but only if they show that movie the motherfucking respect it deserves! Because it captured what it was like to be a geek years before Harry started gathering friends on MySpace.<P>
I love the love shown to these titans of the early Eighties. Now bring on the remake of TERROR VISION! <P>
"The Puttermans finally got themselves a pet. But they never even got a chance to give it a name."<P>
The Band brothers ruled my Viedo Magic shop. The 80s ruled the cinema. End of.

End of line.<br><br>
Yes, I realize its a childrens movie with STAR WARSesque dialogue (read: ridiculous, but awesome) and Campbellian Heroes Myth Action Figure themes, but it still rules and is much smarter and cooler than its given credit for. Seriously, TRON has way ahead of its time at the time: dealing w/ cyberterrorism (before it was even called that), a kind of spin of virtual reality, and, best of all, some really awesome early digital polygon animation (not to mention the awesome rotoscoping). TRON 2 will ride in on a wave of nostalgia that may or may not be its downfall. It could be GREAT, or it could be "meh". Hopefully the former...

read the linked article and you will see that it is a sequel: a new movie with a new script, so stop all the bitching about remakes!<br><br>from what we can see so far, this has all the making s of an INCREDIBLE film! Kosinski is definitely the BEST person for this job. go look at the work on his site. incredible visuals & a perfect fit for a new, updated Tron universe. add the fact that they got some Lost writers working on the script & that Lisberger is also involved & things start to look even better.<br><br>the original Tron is an amazing film way ahead of it's time & this new sequel looks to be of the same caliber. i'm sure whatever they come up with will be light-years ahead of what we are used to seeing in terms of visuals. I will be following the development of this film with extreme interest & anticipation! let's hope it doesn't evaporate like all the other previous rumored sequels. i gotta say that this one really looks like it's going to happen!

Maybe it's just me, but I find an utterly laughable crock to Hollywood doing a LOGANS RUN remake. On the one hand, the whole plot revolves around (SPOILER ALERT in case someone hasn't ever seen the movie or read the story) society cooly and methodically killing and removing anyone who hits 30 for population control reasons and to keep society youth-based. As a result, you only have great looking young people strutting around, living the good life and having parties and sex and doing absolutely nothing in a computer-run, mechanized domed world...Heck, you even have things like "New You shops" to get surgery and to keep everyone looking young and wrinkle free because as we all know you begin to look SOOOO old at 29 (yes, insert eye roll here). The end of the movie involves Logan naturally discovering the truth, toppling the system, freeing everyone, and even introducing them to old man Peter Ustinov who he met along the way to ram home the point that its okay to get old.<p>Which is where the utter CROCK of a Hollywood remake is. I can just see it now -- the remake will play up that same aspect, perhaps to an even larger degree, to profoundly now preach that no matter what age you are you can still make a contribution to society or serve a valuable purpose. Because that's what Hollywood does best, isn't it? Preach messages to the world at large?<p>Of course it's a little hard to swallow THAT particular lesson on ageism given that Hollywood is DRIVEN by ageism and the notion that once you hit 40 you are of no use to anyone. If you're not young, hip, on MTV or a teen star that can last to the ripe old age of 27 or so...you're out. And Heaven forbid you are 40 or so and want to even be on the other side of the camera. Be a director or writer -- because obviously you're not in tune with what the younger audiences want, so there's no point in even dealing with you.<p>Moriarity had made a great point in his SHOOT 'EM UP piece that a large reason the movie works is BECAUSE we finally have adults running around in an action movie. I commented on ageism in that talkback, essentially saluting Mori's comment, though the irony now is that a LOGANS RUN remake just brings us right back to teenyboppers running around in an action movie again. So sadly we're right back to where we started...

...That is, what a waste of a truly GREAT property. I LOVE that movie top to bottom, from the actors to the storyline to the design work to the Craig Safan score, which I still think has one of the most perfect main themes ever.<p>I know it didn't make the coin that Universal had hoped for when it first debuted, but how STARFIGHTER never got either a remake or even a direct to DVD continuation is beyond me. Hell, I'd rather they did a TV show from it and showed THAT instead of FLUSH GORDON on Sci FI...which let us remember is owned by Universal. So go figure that Bonnie Hammer and crew would rather pick up and show another hacked out Halmi piece of shit production instead of picking up the phone and calling their sister division and saying "Hey, why don't we dust this off and develop THIS as a new show?"<p>Just one more example why Hammer should be fired from Sci Fi today and one more example of the studio suits stupidly picking the WRONG things to develop or outright remake...

These corporate suits are so desperate for 'sure things' that they're starting to think that just because it's been made before, a remake will be a 'sure thing.' Tron had its time, but who the fuck wants to see a Tron remake today? It's not like a Tron remake will be some phenomenal moneymaker for these assholes. Why can't these corporate suits all be part of a giant cult and commit mass suicide? Then Hollywood might be restored to the place where imagination flourished (or, at least, survived), not the haven for recycled ideas it is today.

I'd love to see a good sequel that would blow away the original. Better storyline potential (the Apocalypse Now angle is nice), better graphics (CGI is implied, no?), a pro at the helm, et al. It all adds up to fun, if you ask me, no matter how it turns out.

Nah, MCP wasn't destroyed in Tron. It's doing some guest appearances now and then on South Park, playing the part of Moses. Not exactly what you'd call a career, but I've heard it's doing ok. I mean, it could be worse off. It could be doing what David Prowse and Lou Ferrigno do and make it's living by selling photos of themselves to fanboys at comic conventions around the world.

And get my hard-earned money. Loved the original. Own the DVD. Magic dialog. Great pacing. Love the "cinematography". Frackin' awesome movie. In my top two movies of all time. Love the performances, except maybe Yori. Still . . . great film. Tron Sequel will be great if (a) there's not a lot of hip nods to the Internet, dotcom nonsense or IM or SMS speak (b) the conventions of the original's dialog and vocabulary are observed and expanded and (c) there are lots of fabulous babes in skin-tight circuit outfits. <br><br>The visual character of the environments can be expanded (and certainly would be--80% of them were airbrushed matte paintings in the original, and now all could be full realized 3d environments). But the black-and-neon character the original should be reverently preserved, and I suspect it will be. Bring back the solar sailer and the grid bugs! Set the movie in 1986. Just honor the original, and avoid lots of "hip" references to dotcom companies or any sort of "Hey? What's that?" "Oh, him? He's a blogging program. He'll talk you ear off one day and won't say anything for months." "Oh, that's a hit man for the Google." "Oh, her? She's just a podcast. The RSS harvester will get her in just a minute." Blah!<br><br>I want to hear them scream: "Bring in the logic probe!"<Br><br>My 2 cents.

Man, that guy right up the top was right about lettin the bitchin begin! I bet all you bitches were born in the 90's right? Too cool for school huh? <br>
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I'm right with you, KevinWillis - this sequel should be set PRE internet - a la back in the 80's when computers weren't cool but instead reserved for running the third world. Thing is, I'm just not sure where you can go to from the ending which pretty much wrapped things up so neatly. In fact, I'd say that's one of the main reasons we have NOT had a sequel in all these years... <br>
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Maybe they can do something with that teleport technology that zapped Flynn into the computer network to begin with. Did anyone else wonder if that orange was dropped into the game grid when it was hit by the laser? OK maybe you had to be a kid... <br>
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Logan's Run remake has been on the cards for a while, too, hasn't it? Wasn't Bryan Singer attached for a while? This could be a really great film if done right. The original was good but not great - but still good. I remember reading the book once upon a time and the ending was far superior to the movie's - although cinematically it's hard to beat that moment when they see the sun for the very first time! If Children of Men scribe Sexton will be penning the script then I'm hopeful...

It has lists of thousands of movies and TV series that can be remade.
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It's like the motherlode for remake material.
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You need never pitch an original idea again.
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There are also script repositories that can be pillaged for ideas.
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Don't forget to put a dog in it.